Debian debates systemd

Posted Jul 31, 2011 11:59 UTC (Sun) by anselm (subscriber, #2796)
In reply to: Debian debates systemd by viro
Parent article: Debian debates systemd

It isn't quite clear to me whether you have a problem with the idea of cgroups in principle, or with the current implementation of cgroups.

If it's the latter, then with all possible respect why is committing to producing your own distribution (if only for your own personal use) for the indefinite future a better course of action than (contributing to) cleaning up or replacing the current cgroups implementation and being done with the issue? If nothing else it would be good for the Linux community at large, either by improving a feature that many people want to use (even though it is implemented badly), or else by making a feature that some people don't want to use (because it is implemented badly) more acceptable.

Also, many other parts of the kernel are »optional« in the sense that there is a switch in the config file that would make them disappear, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to do so. Some of these might even be badly implemented (I'm not a kernel hacker, so probably wouldn't be able to tell), or might have been badly implemented when they were new and have since been cleaned up. If people are not supposed to make use of »optional« kernel features because they're, well, optional, why offer them in the first place?

Debian debates systemd

Posted Jul 31, 2011 14:27 UTC (Sun) by riel (subscriber, #3142) [Link] (2 responses)

The problem is with systemd not running when one of the optional kernel features it depends on is configured out (or the interface changes).

This is a serious lack of robustness for something that's supposed to replace /sbin/init...

Debian debates systemd

Posted Jul 31, 2011 15:52 UTC (Sun) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (1 responses)

The traditional SysV init itself can fail in all sorts of interesting ways if its components aren't in the correct place or otherwise broken. Most distributions have figured out by now that depending on bash-specific stuff in »#!/bin/sh« scripts called during the init process is a bad idea if people install a different (POSIX-compatible) shell as /bin/sh, but it was not an obvious thing at the time. Personally I wouldn't look to SysV init as a paragon of robustness.

OTOH, it is reasonable to assume that distributions that come with systemd as the default init subsystem will make sure that the kernels provided with the distribution have the necessary features enabled. This is no more or less reasonable than to assume that distributions that come with a DHCP client have networking enabled in the kernel. It is also reasonable to assume that people who insist on tweaking their kernels will leave cgroups etc. in if they expect to use systemd, much like they will leave networking in if they expect to use TCP/IP.

Debian debates systemd

Posted Jul 31, 2011 16:39 UTC (Sun) by viro (subscriber, #7872) [Link]

And vice versa, the people who don't want to enable cgroup/fanotify/whatever weird shit Lennart decides to use today won't use systemd. Exactly my point...

Look, I've dealt with more than one entangled mess in the kernel code, thank you very much. I am *not* volunteering to fix cgroups; it's not just badly written kernel/cgroup.c - the interfaces on *both* sides (userland and the rest of kernel) are seriously misdesigned. As far as I'm concerned, configuring it out solves my problem nicely and those who want it are welcome to produce and submit patches. l-k is over -> that way...

And as for fanotify... *shudder* No way in hell I'm taking over that one. Eric is whole-heartedly welcome to that monster; as long as that fuckup can be configured away, I definitely will do so. On all my boxen.